Murine Models and Research Progress on Dysmenorrhea

Dysmenorrhea is a prevalent gynecological disease among women at reproductive age. It is classified as the primary dysmenorrhea and the secondary dysmenorrhea according to the etiology. The primary dysmenorrhea is caused by uterine hypercontraction without any identifiable pelvic lesions, while the secondary dysmenorrhea is incurred by gynecological disorder with pelvic organic lesions. However, the underlying mechanism of dysmenorrhea is not completely clear. Animal models of dysmenorrhea, especially mouse and rat model, are helpful to explore the pathophysiological mechanism of dysmenorrhea, clarify the therapeutic effect of compounds, and guide clinical treatment. The murine model of primary dysmenorrhea is commonly induced by oxytocin or prostaglandin F_2α, while the secondary dysmenorrhea murine model was further created by injecting oxytocin on the basis of the established primary disease model. This review summarizes the current progress of dysmenorrhea models in rodent, including experimental methods, corresponding evaluation indexes, and the advantages and disadvantages of various murine dysmenorrhea models, in order to provide a reference for the selection of murine dysmenorrhea models and the further study of the pathophysiological mechanism of dysmenorrhea.